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Allowing invited graff best way to reduce unwanted graffiti

Last summer Grits featured a series proposing a three-pronged approach to graffiti enforcement based on restorative justice principles consisting of enforcement, rapid cleanup and provision of space for invited graffiti art. Everybody does the enforcement part, or tries; some municipalities have embraced the rapid cleanup idea; however scarce few have committed resources to providing spaces for invited art. In my view, all three legs of the stool must be in place to significantly reduce uninvited graffiti.While writing that series, I was struck by the lack of significant public policy research on the subject given how long graffiti has been with us and how much the practice costs taxpayers. So I was pleased to see a report from the Denver Post ("New study on graffiti, crime correlation," July 20) about a criminologist's project to research graffiti and evaluate the effectiveness of government responses:[Criminologist Noah] Fritz, a former crime analyst at an Arizona police department, will be the first one to say he doesn't have all the answers...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on July 28, 2008 (boomark / email).